1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a coolant distributing and flow control apparatus for maintaining a constant temperature in temperature-controllable regions of an injection molding machine, particularly in regions thereof in which said temperature is critical for the function of said machine, which apparatus is adopted to be connected to a plurality of cooling circuits, which branch from a common supply passage and open into a common return passage, which are defined by closely adjoining fittings, which are provided with tubular ports, which are adapted to be provided with hose couplings for connection to the cooling circuits, which apparatus also comprises rotary valves for controlling the flow in the cooling circuits, and may be provided with monitoring means for visually indicating the temperature in each of said regions and any deviation of said temperature from a desired value for each of said regions, which monitoring means are integrated in a unit which constitutes said apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In an apparatus of that kind, which is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,974,857, the cooling circuits are designed for being manually controlled, the supply passage and the return passage of the apparatus are spaced apart by flow-sensing tubes, which constitute spacers, and said supply passage and return passage are defined each by a series of fittings.
A similar known apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,559 and is designed for an exclusively automatic control of the cooling circuits but does not take into account the fact that different accuracy requirements are to be met by the cooling in different temperature-controllable regions of the injection molding machine.